


Blood In The Water

by sevenall



Category: DCU (Comics)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-22
Updated: 2016-04-22
Packaged: 2018-06-03 19:02:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6622549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenall/pseuds/sevenall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>That night, she circled him as he slept, feeling no urge to either kill or mate, only peace. Friend, he had said.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blood In The Water

The first time Letifos saw Garth, he took her for someone else. They played hide and seek across the Indian Ocean all night until she grew bored with the game. For a warmblood, he wasn't a bad swimmer. She let him catch up with her near the Malaccan Strait.

The purple eyes meant trouble, were he to lay a hand on her, so she played coy, wrapping herself seductively in her long hair and felt secretly relieved that she hadn't tried to take a bite out of him during the chase.

But he didn't touch her, only sat down on the edge of a dune and scrunched up his face, making wounded noises. Friend, he said, and Tula. Letifos laughed and repeated the words, they meant nothing to her yet. A change in the water then and he reached out for her, warm blood in cold, cold water and said friend again. Her shark voice was rusty with disuse and she did not quite remember how to ease the words over three sets of teeth, but she nodded.

That night, she circled him as he slept, feeling no urge to either kill or mate, only peace. Friend, he had said.

***

The last time Letifos saw Garth, he was laying himself wide open to what had been Tula, once. Though they were well matched in strength and skill, Garth was only parrying and blocking to keep her blade from his throat. The water was streaked with blood and but for the discipline of her troops, they would have gone into a frenzy. Letifos felt the pull of madness, of killing rage herself. But she had felt it ever since she first laid eyes on that…creature. This must be done cleanly, with the sword, not with the teeth.

Once before, Letifos stood by and watched helplessly as her friend bled out into the water. She remembers the taste: salt, sweet and magic. She remembers how the shark warriors swayed and sang as the sacrifice was accepted and how she tried to join in, but gagged instead. Because she tried to sing, she owes him.

And this time, she can do something, so she will; though the cost is the only friend she's ever had.

THE END


End file.
